The last few days in Canada

The last few days in Vancourver it rained a lot. Not the misty rain we had at the beginning of my trip, but heavy, steady rain. 

It meant that several plans we had to explore outside were put off, instead we did a bit of cooking and hanging out with friends. 

We were going to ride bikes around Stanley park, in the middle of Vancouver City. Instead we drove around and jumped out between showers to see the sights and take photos. 

We also took Molly (their dog) for a walk along mudflats where herrons flew past. All around Colin and Evelyn's place I kept seeing fields of red. They are fields of blueberry bushes in the winter, where the red is the tops of their branches. 

I have loved my time in Canada. I did a whole heap of site seeing, but I also got to spend some more time with my friends, catching up after almost 2 years. It was great to see their lives here, and see what Canada is really like. 

Victoria

Colin, Evelyn and I broke from the rest of the group and headed to Victoria, the capital city of British Columbia. 

It was cold and wet. Rained the whole time, was pretty miserable. But Victoria is very pretty, lovely old buildings. 

The best bit was we went down to a marina and there were seals hanging  around waiting for the fisherman to clean their catch. They got so close and had learnt how to do tricks to get the tourists attention. I also managed to get attacked by massive seagulls - twice the size of the ones in Australia. 

Parksville

After the day in Nanaimo we headed to friends in Parksville, a little costal town. 

We didn't do heaps here, relaxed and hung out. We walked along a rock filled beach, where instead of sand there were huge rocks pounded smooth. I climbed up on a bunch of huge rocks at the end of the beach with some of the girls. 

The family we stayed with were the most hospitable people I have met. They graciously welcomed 8 adults (including an Aussie they had never met), 2 babies and one toddler into their house without any qualms, and fed us all amazing food. Everything about their house was peaceful and relaxing, and you never felt like an intruder. I hope can be a host like that. 

Funny story; there were a few mix ups about 'the Aussie' that was coming along. I knew North Americans pronounce Erin and Aaron the same way (in Australia we emphasise the 'Ah' sound at the beginning on Aaron), as well as Eyrn being a male name, so the family we stayed with were expecting a guy and did a double take when I was introduced :)

Nanaimo

Our first stop was at relatives house, in the outskirts of a place called Nanaimo.  

Their property has a river that runs through the edge of it. It's a big full river that is rushing past huge rocks.

 We went for a walk up stream and discovered all these rock pools full of ice. Everything was frozen, covered with a thin glitter. 

I can't explain the frozen beauty of the rocks and moss and leaves. I tried with the camera but I just couldn't quite capture the ice in the air, the crunch when we stepped, the puffs of white air when you breathed and the slickness underfoot. All the while you can hear the thunder of the water rushing past.

 

There is moss everywhere! On rocks, trees. It's soft to touch not slimy like moss in Australia. 

I have no concept of time here. At midday the sun is only about as far into the sky that the sun would be at 8 or 9 in the morning at home. It never gets overhead and it's messing with the way I instinctually measure the time of day. 

Ferry

Near Vancourver is Vancouver Island. When it was mentioned we were going to 'The Island' I thought it would be like a small island we'd be camping on. Rather it's more like Tasmania would be to Australia. It's huge, with a whole lot of towns and city's on it. 

We caught the ferry across. It was really pretty going past the islands and as it was such a clear day we could see all the mountains on the mainland, full with snow. The big one was Mt Baker, which is in USA. 

We did go out onto the deck at one point but it was sooo cold, the wind was blowing like crazy and my fingers were freezing! It took about 2 hours to get to the island, so by the time we got to the island it was dark and the sun was going down. 

Snow!

We went up to Mt Seymour to go tobogganing. Finally saw some snow! Yay, and as it was a reasonably nice day it wasn't even as cold as I thought. 

We are about to head off to Vancourver Island for a few days so don't have time for a real post, and I'm not sure I'll have opportunity to blog there, but here is some snow pictures to tide you guys over :). 

Apparently I fail miserably at tobogganing :). I freak out and put my feet down which turns me around and then I'm going down the hill backwards, haha. 

Polar Bear Swim

Woke up late on New Years Day, and Evelyn made waffles for breakfast. Then we had to scrabble out the door to be at a beach called White Rock for the annual Polar Bear Swim. 

Basically crazy Canadians think it's fun to jump into freezing cold water without much clothing on, on New Year's Day. Personally the appeal is not really there for me. Colin and a whole bunch of his family did it, the beach is quite shallow for a fair way, so it's more of a run in cold water than a swim. 

At White Rock there is a long peir and rock wall, apparently they filmed Free Willy there. It's about an 800m walk out, you get a great view back at the beach and then look out across the Pacific towards the USA border. 

Friends of the family live near the beach so we went back there for lunch, they have a super cute little beach house which I fell in love with. As we were driving home we happened to go past 'The Skinny House' - apparently the thinnest house in North America, 8 feet wide. 

Colin and Evelyn had a friend over for dinner, and we had a go of making pasta from scratch. Lots of fun!

New Year's Eve

There were so many people at the house for New Year's Eve, everyone is related to someone in some way, and I gave up trying to work out all the connections. We had a huge yummy feast and played some group games. 

I started to miss everyone at home so retreated to my room for a bit, but when I came out again a group were getting ready to sing some praise songs in the music room. We all sat around in a circle while a bunch of the guys played music (the babies joined in), and we sung from old hymn books. We did that up until midnight, which was a really great way to spend the last few minutes of 2013. 

Suddenly at 2 minutes to midnight Anita called out "Everyone get your shoes on, let's go out the front!" Everyone started grabbing noisemakers, trumpets, drums. I didn't have time to get my coat on, just my shoes so I couldn't get great pictures as I was shivering so much! But at midnight all of a sudden everyone started making as much noise as possible and ran down the street making noise. Apparently this is what you do at midnight in Canada on New Year's Eve :). 

Happy New Year everyone! 2013 was especially crazy, so many changes for me! A new church, a new job, a new flatmate, a trip overseas, new discoveries about myself, dreams becoming reality. God taught me time and time again how in control He is, and that His ways are perfect. That He has a plan and to trust Him in every step. Even when things didn't make sense I clung to His word, and kept striving to do His will. 

For the first time in many, many years I look forward to the coming year with real joy and hope. Not just a vague possible hope, but a real genuine hope. I know partly it is because of a certain someone waiting for me when I come home in a few weeks :) . But it is also because I trust a God who is so much bigger than I can ever imagine. Who is always there when I struggle and when life is beautiful, who I know loves me no matter what, whose plans are perfect even if they don't make sense to me, who has planned everything in my life to make me more like Him and to use me to draw others to Him. 

2014, I am so ready! 

Recycling and Forest Walks

One of the things I like about staying with locals is doing things that a tourist never would. Today Evelyn and I went to take the bottles to recycling. Hehe, totally random and not a tourist thing at all! 

All the plastic and glass bottles in the house are collected into garbage bag. (There was a lot after Christmas!) 

We drove them off to the bottle depot. 

There we sorted the bottles into different boxes depending on what they are made of and what was in them.

 Then we took it to the cashier to be counted and get money for the bottles. 

Not a bad system. 

Then we took the family's dog, Molly, for a walk in Watershed park. 

Apparently it is classified as a rainforest as the woods are so wet. We had to wear gumboots to go walking, as the trails were so muddy. It was a really different type of forest, wet with lots of moss growing on the trunks of leafless trees. It was particulary misty today, a low blanket of cloud over the whole forest which impacted the light in amongst the trees. 

It's still New Year's Eve here today, the house is in the midst of preparations for a gathering tonight. 

Maple leaves, Bridges and Break-ins

Monday was another overcast cold day. I don't think I have seen the sun since I came, and while my skin is loving the rest from sun exposure I'm already starting to long for a break in the clouds. 

Today turned into a bit of a shopping day. We met a friend of Colin and Evelyn's at a shop called The Gourmet Warehouse, which is a huge kitchen appliance and specialist foods store. I picked up a few goodies, in particular a maple leaf shaped cookie cutter. I love how the maple leaf is everywhere here, it's on clothes, petrol stations, food, banks, sporting teams. Having one simple symbol to represent their country is kinda cool. And it's classy; well more than other countries emblems. 

Then we went to Granville Island, which is one of the many islands around Vancouver ("Vancouver is a city full of bridges" I've been told). It has lots of cute shops with artisan products and also a huge food market with gourmet snacks and fresh produce. 

Since I've arrived here I've been warned a lot not to leave anything valuable in the car. When several people reminded me to take all my things with me I thought it was quite odd. It was then explained that car break-ins are quite common. Today we discovered that both Colin and his sisters car had been broken into overnight. Not much was there to be taken besides some clothes; but here is my own piece of travel advice if anyone reading this ever heads to Vancouver. Take all your valuables with you, and also keep the car clear so people can look inside and realise there is nothing to take. 

Frozen Soccer

Being Sunday, I went with Colin and Evelyn to their church. As it was between Christmas and New Years it was a different service. Everyone brought things for a 'pot luck' brunch and we discussed different questions about the year ahead around tables. There was everything from donuts, to Moroccan targine, to Korean noodles, to blueberry stuffed French toast. 

In the afternoon we headed back out to soccer. Their team had made it to the next round of a weekend tournament that they had entered. It was an indoor comp, but seeing as how we are in Canada their 'indoor sports' centre is actually the ice rink. The centre has 8 rinks, one of which has has the ice pulled up, rubber put down and then turf laid to create an indoor soccer field. It is surrounded by see through Perspex so we can sit on the benches and watch. Of course it is still connected to all the other ice rinks so it is rediculously cold. I was warned to rug up, and was given a few blankets to sit with. But still I was freezing. Thankfully it was only 40 min games and so I was able to go and thaw out in the warmer viewing area between games. (I may have stayed in that area for one of the games, helping to mind the babies). 

They won their first 3 games on Saturday. It was kinda fun watching, using the rink meant rules were changed a little; rebounds are still in, so you can kick at the wall to get it to a teammate. 

Unfortunately on Sunday they lost so there was no more games after that round. All the team (and a few extra) then went out for pizza. Apparently Australians do not like spicy food (this was from a discussion with the four Canadians who had lived in Australia). I tried to redeem my nation by eating as much of the spice as the rest of them, but the 'cactus sauce' they were all heaping on their chips was too much for me!

Welcome to Canada

While LA airport had no cultural experience to speak of, Vancouver knows how to welcome people into the their country.

After a gorgeous sunset we landed in the airport and are forced to walk through this cave like room with amazing indeigenous artworks all through it as well as a little river, that turned into a waterfall that you walk through to get to customs. Very pretty.

Would totally recommend going to Vancouver just to walk through the international arrivals :).